Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Why the Pope Chose 'Benedict'

We've had many readers ask us if we knew why the Pope chose the name 'Benedict'. Cardinals are saying that he chose the name to honor Benedict XV's commitment to peace. According to AP (via Yahoo! News):

Ratzinger told cardinals he wanted to pay homage to Benedict XV, known for tireless efforts to help refugees and reunite a world divided by what was then known as the Great War, an archbishop said.

You even made CNN yet again earlier today, so it's still an on-going story. What will be trying is keeping it up after the Installation Mass, though I daresay with World Youth Day coming up in Cologne, interest will be at all-time fever pitch again.

Thanks to you both for the kind words. Good to hear that we were on CNN again! Certainly, we will keep this blog updated. Boney and I started this site back in June 2004 with the intention of updating it for the rest of our lives. And we intend to do just that!

Did the new Pope choose "Benedict" to honor Benedict XV, or because of the prophecies of St Malachy? St Malachy's “visions” showed him that the next to the last Pope before Armageddon would be a “Benedictine”, and the next (or last) Pope will reign just before the return of Christ?

It is strange that in our society we have decided to give women the same rigths and opprtunities to excel in business, schools and organizations. It is amazing that we have given them the privilege to vote, to hold elected office, to hold management and executive positions in corporations or even maybe become president or prime minister. With the Catholic Church's shining examples of what roles women can and cannot have.....we should also follow the Church's example and restrict a women's ability to reach their full potential in work, career, calling, talent and human potential. We should restrict a women's ability to hold position's of authority We should resist ba women's ability to improve for the better the world we all live in It is a man's job to change. It is a man's job to make the world more livable and loveable. It is a man's job to be Pope. It is a man's job to bring all religions together. It is a man's job to spread world peace and Love. It is a man's job to lead the Cardinals. I'm mean isn't being a true human being the ability to learn to discriminate, to set-up barriers against others, to exercise prejudice, to keep power for ourselves.......and then to explain it all with religious creeds, holy injuctions, encyclicals and the like.The Barriers that prevent women from excelling in the Catholic Church are sinful, mean spirited,shortsighted, hurtful, destructive and just plain wrong.But aside from this let us discuss why the Cardinal chose the name Benedict.... its so much nicer conversation. JohnnyRubb

This long line of argument of "why women should be priests" is something we've all heard before.

And I have yet to get a decent cogent answer from the questioners as to why women such as myself, would prefer things to remain as they are, regarding ordained female priests.

I'm neither unambitious, nor do I want to be treated unfairly because I am a woman.

But at the end of the day, do we have a Roman Catholic Church, or do we just have a Church like so many dozens of other Christian Churches, where anything and everything goes?

Funnily enough, they seem to be dying, whereas ours is reinvigorated and growing every where in the world.

I was never the kind of person to say this, but if people don't like the traditions of the Catholic Church and what they will continue to be in the near future, then you should just go and found your own Schism-Catholic-like Church e basta.

i'm not sure exactly where everyone is going with this lack of gender equity in the ordination of priests. it seems a rather exclusionary tactic designed to keep patriarchal ideals in the forefront of the church.i'm not saying the church should go out and kill the first-born male of every house as recompense (although that has worked in the past). i'm just saying that why is there a rift between those who believe in equal rights and those who think a woman should "know her place." also, i'm shocked that a man's is the only blog to confirm this idea.measure twice, cut once.

I am sure there are many women who aspire to become a priest, and who are qualified both intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually to excelas a priest, or a bishop or a Cardinal or Pope.It is just plain wrong to exclude women. History has shown us time and again that once the walls of separation and discrimination are broken down everyone is better off.Why would anyone (especially Jesus) put up a roadblock that denies women the ability to be ordained. The Church has made many serious mistakes in the past. Why is it so hard to see the serious errorthey are now making.Dear vbspurs. You may have heard all the arguments. Are you really listening ? When is it right to discriminate ?Discrimination is not a healthy thing for mankind.It is not healthy for the Roman Catholic Church.

What good comes from excluding women to the priesthood ?

For all we know, women bishops may very well haveprevented many of the sexual abuses that took place.Women Cardinals may have extended a true ecumenical spirit to other religions centuries ago.It seems strange to me that the past leadership of the one, true, catholic church exhibited so much intolerance to other religions over the past decades/ centuries. (and it was all Men in charge.)

It seems so strange to me that the past and new Pope is reaching out to build bridges with people of other faiths. Shouldn't the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church been doing this for the last 2000 years. Don't you ask yourself why intolerance ofother religions even ocurred in the first instance ?

Intolerance is intolerance. For the church's leadership that is promoting love, understanding, peaceful coexistence, equality......there sure is a large degree of intolerance towards women becoming full fledged leaders in the Roman Catholic Church.JohnnyRubb

Actually the arguments are solid and to the point. Fair is fair, equal is equal. 2000 years of traditionis absolutely no reason to continue to do something which hurts people. There is absolutely not one, solid, reasoned , cogent position explaining why women cannot perform equally well as priest and bishops. Addtionally there is a lot to suggest that the current system of exclusion is held on to out of fear of having been wrong for 2000 years.I always ask for a reasonable discussion of those abilities which women lack and therefore make them unsuitable to become priests. I also like to ask people to consider all the wonderful things thattalented, dedicated, intelligent, holy people can accomplish (regardless of gender) if their calling isas a priest or bishop.I am frightened of people or religions who are set in their ways simply because of tradition.All (and I mean ALL) the great injustices, discriminations, prejudices and persecutions throughout history were justified by those in powerexercising the injustice. JohnnyRubb

PS The Nature of a Blog is that is allows everyonewho chooses (regardless of their opinion) to BLOG.

Before you tear down a fence you better make sure you know why it was erected in the first place.

Go ahead and be frightened. The Church is not going to have female priests. Women have other roles to serve in the Church and if you knew anything about Church history you'd realize that they have made splendid contributions to the Faith.

Christ chose 12 Apostles who were MEN, not women.

Discrimination is not a dirty word. Actually, discrimination is a good thing because it helps one determine what is right and wrong and what is appropriate. God gave us reason and discrimination is a function of reason. So is judgment.

Problem with PC thinking is that when one tries to be so open-minded that one's brains eventually fall out.

And what is the reason this fence was erected in the first place ? Because:_______________________

Christ may have chosen twelve males as apostles.This action is not in and of itself reason to exclude women as priests.Christ never listed any specific reasons why a female couldn't be a priest.

It seems we are all made in God's image and likeness (which is far beyond the limitations of gender).

Good judgement and reason would lead us to see that women are fully capable to function as outstanding priests and bishops. Good reasoningleads us to see that there is NO good reason not to allow women to ascend to the preisthood. Good reasoning has shown us that tradition in and of itself is a weak argument for anything.Tradition had it at one time that the earth was the center of the universe.

Executing priestly responsibilities including the sacraments has nothing to do with being male, but everything to do with being a whole person.

There is no suggestion that women haven't made tremendous contributions to the Chruch over the centuries.

There is the FIRM suggestion that women sharing the power and authority of being a bishop, cardinal or Pope might actually enhance the Church in many ways. A WOMAN Cardinal in the Archdiocese of Boston or Los Angeles would never have moved around priests from parish to parish allowing them to continue their sexually abusive behavior of children.

You dismiss "tradition" as if it's not a valid reason to ban women priesthood. The Church calls it "Sacred Tradition", which is different from secular tradition.

There have never been women priests in the Old Testament among the Hebrew people. Indeed, the priesthood was exclusively male. This Levitical priesthood was active at the time of Christ and it is carried throughout the history of the Catholic Church. The only female priests belonged to false and/or demonic religions.

Secondly, if you ponder (yes, PONDER, instead of kneejerk PC programming) the nature of male and female as God created them, you might notice that there are major biological, intellectual, emotional and spiritual differences. Neither are better than the other, but they are not the SAME as secular wisdom tries to teach.

Women's roles in the Church are vital, but one of those roles is not the priesthood. Pope John Paul II spoke ex cathedra in "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" declaring the issue closed forever. There will NEVER be female priests in the Roman Catholic Church. And if it "hurts" some people then they can join the Episcopal Church.

BTW, I failed to address your silly generalization about a WOMAN bishop or cardinal would never have covered up the sex scandal. That is ridiculous. You are saying that women are incapable of deceit and subterfuge??? Sorry to say, they share in the problem of original sin and concupiscence just as men. In that there is equality.

Look at Hilary Clinton. She's had her share of coverups and scandal. Many women politicians have been involved in scandal and coverup. Your remarks are ingenuous and downright ridiculous.

There may be biological differences between a man and woman, but there are also thousands of biological similarities (including, but cetainly not limited to, deceit and subtrefuge).Emotional, intellectual and spiritual differences are far more similar between men and women than they are different. Actually we are MUCH more unqiue as individuals (exclusive of gender) than we are different as men and women as a group.Take genetic code....there are so many more similarities between humans than there are differences between the sexes. What we have on this earth is 6 billion+ unique individuals (exclusive of race, gender, sexual orientation)

Strange that the Pope has time to issue decrees on women as priests "Pope John Paul II spoke ex cathedra in "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" declaring the issue closed forever." while saying and doing little or nothing about the perpetrators of egregious wrongs in the sexual scandals abuse cases. There was something really wrong with Pope John Paul's priorities.

The fact that the former Cardinal of Boston Archdiocese was moved to Rome, given a plum position and large salary even after his complicity in the priestly sexual abuse scandal SPEAKS volumes of the deficiencies inherent in a close parochial system.

You are correct that we cannot know if a woman Cardinal would have treated the sexual abuse scandal differently. Neither can we know how much good they could bring to the Church as Bishops and Cardinals if it never comes to passbecause of "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis". Again I cannot image any damage that might come should a woman become a cardinal or priest.

What a shame that the potential is there never to beexplored.

What is it about a man that makes him qualified to be a priest and not a woman. Does a man qualify because he has a penis and a woman disqualifies because she has a womb.

What is it that is SO DIFFERENT about a man that only he can be a priest ? What could it be that makes a man so unlike in nature and form from a woman? Are we only talking about the physiological plumbing?

Priests do many things. They preach, they counsel, they study theology, the teach, they administer sacraments, they do missionary work, they raise money for the church, they speak out about injustices, they guide people, they lead prayer, they are spiritual, they spread the message of Christ and many many more things. There are thousands of women who are more than qualified to do all these.

Greater things than these you shall do. Christ was speaking to everyone. Christ's message of equality is being distorted by the rules of the roman catholic Church.Christ was about fairness.Christ kicked the money changers out of the temple, not because conducting business in the temple was wrong, but because the business they were conducting was UNFAIR. They were charging exorbitant fees to the common man. Sort of like selling water at $20.00 a gallon after a hurricane.Christ's message was about fairness.

There is nothing FAIR denying a woman an important role in the Catholic Church as a Bishop or Cardinal is she so aspires to be in this role.

And because the Pope says something ex cathedra in "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" does that give it more credence to it than if he explained it in plain Italian or plain French or plain English. It borders on being pretentious. I know Latin and you don't so I'm smarter than you, and what I say is more important!

And regarding female buddhist monks not a bad idea. I think I will explore this situation. Seems so unfair and wrong if they do not allow a woman to be a monk.